2008 Mid Year Estimates of the Population

Statistics on 2008 mid-year population estimates include data for Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland for the period up to the end of June 2008. The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 21 August 2008.

As at 30 June 2008:

• there were 2,993,400 people resident in Wales.  This is an increase of 13,500 on mid-2007 (0.5 per cent increase), slightly lower than the previous annual increase (14,100, between mid-2006 and mid-2007);
• the number of births exceeded the number of deaths for the third successive year;
• there was little change in the broad age structure of the population compared to 2007, with 18.5 per cent of the population being children aged 0-15 (553,100 people), compared to 18.7 per cent in 2007, and 21.4 per cent of retirement age (639,400 people), compared to 21.0 per cent in 2007. For the UK as a whole, 18.8 per cent were children and 19.2 per cent of retirement age, and for the second successive year the number of those of retirement age exceeded the number of children;
• all local authorities apart from Cardiff and Wrexham showed a decrease in the number of children aged 0-15 between mid-2007 and mid-2008.  These decreases ranged from a 0.2 per cent decrease in Denbighshire to a 1.7 per cent decrease in Gwynedd.  However, the number of children aged under 5 in Wales increased by 2.8 per cent between mid-2007 and mid-2008, and all local authorities saw an increase.

Revision note

The 2002-2008 mid year estimates were revised in May 2010 as part of ONS’ programme on improving population and migration estimates (IMPS).

This output is based on the unrevised population and migration data and therefore should be treated with caution.

More information on IMPS can be accessed through the related links section.

Further information

StatsWales website.

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 5058
E-mail: stats.popcensus@wales.gsi.gov.uk